Kyoto

Kiyomizu-dera , officially Otowa-san Kiyomizu-dera is an independent Buddhist temple in eastern Kyoto. The temple is part of the Historic Monuments... of Ancient Kyoto UNESCO World Heritage site. Kiyomizu-dera was founded in the early Heian period. The temple dates back to 778, and its present buildings were constructed in 1633, during a restoration ordered by the Tokugawa Iemitsu. There is not a single nail used in the entire structure. It takes its name from the waterfall within the complex, which runs off the nearby hills. Kiyomizu means clear water, or pure water. It was originally affiliated with the old and influential Hossō sect dating from Nara times. However, in 1965 it severed that affiliation, and its present custodians call themselves members of the "Kitahossō" sect. The main hall has a large veranda, supported by tall pillars, that juts out over the hillside and offers impressive views of the city.
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Kinkaku-ji , also known as Rokuon-ji , is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. The garden complex is an excellent example of Muromachi period... garden design. The Muromachi period is considered to be a classical age of Japanese garden design. The correlation between buildings and its settings were greatly emphasized during this period. It was a way to integrate the structure within the landscape in an artistic way. The garden designs were characterized by a reduction in scale, a more central purpose, and a distinct setting. A minimalistic approach was brought to the garden design, by recreating larger landscapes in a smaller scale around a structure. It is designated as a National Special Historic Site and a National Special Landscape, and it is one of 17 locations comprising the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto World Heritage Site. It is also one of the most popular buildings in Japan, attracting a large number of visitors annually. It has also been made widely familiar as being featured in a photograph in the desktop picture art of Apple's OS X computer operating system, labeled simply as "Golden Palace".
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The Katsura Imperial Villa , or Katsura Detached Palace, is a villa with associated gardens and outbuildings in the western suburbs of Kyoto, Japan .... It is one of Japan's most important large-scale cultural treasures. Its gardens are a masterpiece of Japanese gardening, and the buildings are even more important, one of the greatest achievements of Japanese architecture. The palace includes a shoin , tea houses, and a strolling garden. It provides an invaluable window into the villas of princes of the Edo period. The palace formerly belonged to the princes of the Hachijō-no-miya family. The Imperial Household Agency administers it, and accepts visitors by appointment. The Katsura district of Kyoto has long been favored for villas, and in the Heian period, Fujiwara no Michinaga had a villa there. The members of the Heian court found it an elegant location for viewing the moon. Prince Hachijō Toshihito , the founder of the Katsura Imperial Villa, was born on February 13, 1579. He was the sixth son of Prince Sanehito, and a descendent of Emperor Ogimachi.
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Nishiyogoku Athletic Stadium , or Field and track and ball game field, Kyoto Nishikyogoku Athletic Park Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in... Ukyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of J. League club Kyoto Sanga F.C. The stadium holds 20,242 people and was built in 1942. It hosted the football match between Romania and Ghana during the 1964 Summer Olympics. 3-minute walk from Nishi-Kyōgoku Station on the Hankyū Kyoto Main Line.
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The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto is an art museum in Kyoto, Japan. This Kyoto museum is also known by the English acronym MoMAK . The... National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto was initially created as the Annex Museum of the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. MoMAK was established on its present site on March 1, 1963. Its building, formerly the auxiliary building of the Kyoto Municipal Exhibition Hall for Industrial Affairs, was transferred from Kyoto City to the National Museum after restoration. On June 1, 1967, the Kyoto Annex Museum officially became the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto. Seventeen years later, the old building was dismantled and the present building, designed by Fumihiko Maki was completed. The museum was opened to the public on October 26, 1986, with 9,761.99 m² total floor area and 2,604.94 m² exhibition area. MoMAK is a national institution devoted to the collection and preservation of artworks and related reference materials of the twentieth century in Japan and other parts of the world.
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Gota Yashiki is both an independent acid jazz artist and drum player, as a member of the band Simply Red. He was born in Kyoto, Japan, on 26 February... 1962, where at a young age he learned how to play traditional Japanese drums. This interest in drumming propelled him into the music scene, and he moved to Tokyo in 1982 to join a reggae/dub band that became known as Mute Beat. Together with Mute Beat band member Kazufumi Kodama he worked on various projects and formed the duo Kodama & Gota. From 1986 on, Gota entered the European music scene. After spending some time back in Tokyo, he returned to London in 1988 and began collaborating with numerous well-known artists, including Soul II Soul, Sinéad O'Connor and Seal, while also working on film soundtracks and re-mixes. Gota joined Simply Red in 1991 for the recording of the album Stars and the following world tour. In late 1993, he released an album entitled Something to Talk About under the name Gota & The Heart of Gold, and helped fellow Simply Red band member Heitor T.P. release a solo album in 1994.
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Stomu Yamashta is a Japanese percussionist, keyboardist and composer. He is sometimes credited as Stomu Yamash'ta. His father was the band director... Kiyoharu Yamashita . Stomu Yamashta was born in Kyoto, Japan, and studied music at Kyoto University, Juilliard School of Music, and Berklee College of Music, and has also lectured in music. In 1972, he brought the Red Buddha Theatre company from Japan to Europe, acting as their director, producer and composer, writing and performing in the multi-media event "The Man From The East", with Morris Pert's Come To The Edge providing the musical backing. He was the leader of the supergroup Go with Steve Winwood, Al Di Meola, Klaus Schulze, and Michael Shrieve. He has composed for the British Royal Ballet, and wrote pieces for the David Bowie film The Man Who Fell to Earth and performed in Peter Maxwell Davies's score for Ken Russell's The Devils and in John Williams' score for Robert Altman's Images . He has also composed film scores, most notably One by One .
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Ittoku Kishibe is a Japanese actor. The veteran of over 115 films, he won the Best Actor Japanese Academy Award for Shi no toge in 1991, and was... nominated for the Best Supporting Actor award in 1994. He is currently playing Yotsuya for the live-action drama of Maison Ikkoku.
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Rikiya Koyama is a Japanese actor and voice actor who is a member of Haiyuza Theatre Company. He has done popular voicing roles in Hajime no Ippo,... Utawarerumono and Kamen no Maid Guy. He is also known by the nicknames "Rikki" and "Riki-chan". He graduated from Ritsumeikan University, where he read law, in 1986, and entered Toho Gakuen College and majored in drama. After graduation, he joined the Haiyuza Theatre Company in 1988. His first production with the company was The Idiot, in which he played the role of a servant. He came to the attention of the public when he was selected at an audition to play the role of Sebastian in Twelfth Night, directed by Michael Pennington. Since then, he has appeared in many plays, including The Merchant of Venice, staged October and November 2005. He played the role of Antonio. The play was performed in the UK, the Netherlands, Romania, and Japan and received a favorable reception. He played in Japanese TV dramas which dealt with social problems, such as The School Will Change When the Headmaster Changes and Unjust Accusation.
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Harumi Miyako is a Japanese singer of enka. Born Harumi Kitamura in Kyoto, she made her debut in 1964. Her popularity has lasted: She makes... frequent appearances in the annual television spectacular Kōhaku Uta Gassen and has acted in a number of films.
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Amii Ozaki , real name Misuzu Ohara , is a Japanese singer songwriter born on 19 March 1957 in Kita-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. She has... written music such as Oribia o Kikinagara by Anri and Tenshi no Uingu by Seiko Matsuda, as well as many other songs. Ozaki makes irregular appearances on her friend Akira Kamiya's internet radio show Kamiya Akira Hot Beat Party. Her husband is musician Rei Ohara. Her mother is Akemi Ozaki, a maker of popular handbags and purses made from vintage obi. Ozaki began studying classical piano in 1965 at the age of eight. By the time she was sixteen, after graduating from Kyoto Municipal Kinugasa Junior High School, she had begun writing her own works and participating in an amateur composers club. Her first work, Hitorikko ka Bakko, tells the story of the loneliness of searching for one's mother. She attended Kyoto Prefectural Yamashiro High School. In 1974, Ozaki participated in her first contest, winning ¥5000 and making a favorable impression on one of the judges who indicated that he thought she was going to become a professional in the near future.
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Jūzō Itami , born Yoshihiro Ikeuchi , was a Japanese actor and a film director. The 10 movies he directed, all of which he wrote himself,... are comic satires. Itami was born Yoshihiro Ikeuchi in Kyoto, Japan. The name Itami was passed on from his father, Mansaku Itami—who had himself been a renowned satirist and film director before World War II. He is the brother-in-law of Kenzaburō Ōe and uncle of Hikari Ōe. He played the father Ishihara in the comic TV program Cometa San. At the end of the war, when he was in Kyoto, Itami was chosen as an infant prodigy and educated at Tokubetsu Kagaku Gakkyū as a future scientist who was expected to defeat the allied powers. Among his fellow students, were the sons of Hideki Yukawa and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga. This class was abolished in March 1947. He moved from Kyoto to Ehime when he was a high school student. He attended the prestigious Matsuyama Higashi High School, where he was known for being able to read works by Arthur Rimbaud in French.
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Yuri Amano is a Japanese voice actress. She was born Tomoko Yoshikawa .

Junya Nakano is a Japanese video game composer who was employed at Square Enix from 1995 to 2009. He is best known for scoring Threads of Fate and... co-composing Final Fantasy X. He has also worked as an arranger for Dawn of Mana and the Nintendo DS version of Final Fantasy IV. Nakano has collaborated with his friend and fellow composer Masashi Hamauzu on several games. He was introduced to music at the age of three when his parents offered him lessons in the electronic organ. After studying composition and arrangement at a vocational school, Nakano worked for Konami from 1991 to 1994, where he scored numerous arcade games. Nakano is noted for his ambient style and for using percussion, timbre, and rhythm in his compositions. Junya Nakano was born in Kyoto, Japan. His parents introduced him to music when he was three years old, offering him lessons in the electronic organ through the Yamaha Music Foundation; they also encouraged him to join some brass bands. After playing the 1979 arcade game Lunar Rescue, he developed an interest in video games and subsequently began to enjoy chiptune music.
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Tarō Ishida is a Japanese actor and seiyū from the city of Kyoto. Ishida attended Sophia University. Ishida is a chief priest at a... Buddhist temple in Kanazawa, Ishikawa. Ishida is affiliated with Granpapa Production and his former stage name is Gentarō Ishida .
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Ichikawa Raizō VIII was a Japanese film and kabuki actor. He was born as Yoshiya Ōta in Kyoto on August 29, 1931. Ichikawa Raizō... appeared mostly in period dramas . He is best known for the Sleepy Eyes of Death series, Ninja series and Nakano Spy School series . Raizō worked many times with director Kenji Misumi. Their collaborations include The Sword and Destiny's Son . Other great works include An Actor's Revenge . He eventually died of rectal cancer.
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Stomu Yamashta is a Japanese percussionist, keyboardist and composer. He is sometimes credited as Stomu Yamash'ta. His father was the band director... Kiyoharu Yamashita . Stomu Yamashta was born in Kyoto, Japan, and studied music at Kyoto University, Juilliard School of Music, and Berklee College of Music, and has also lectured in music. In 1972, he brought the Red Buddha Theatre company from Japan to Europe, acting as their director, producer and composer, writing and performing in the multi-media event "The Man From The East", with Morris Pert's Come To The Edge providing the musical backing. He was the leader of the supergroup Go with Steve Winwood, Al Di Meola, Klaus Schulze, and Michael Shrieve. He has composed for the British Royal Ballet, and wrote pieces for the David Bowie film The Man Who Fell to Earth and performed in Peter Maxwell Davies's score for Ken Russell's The Devils and in John Williams' score for Robert Altman's Images . He has also composed film scores, most notably One by One .
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